Iām sorry to hear that bothers you so much. Iām literally a nobody lol. Never thought people would remember/care. The thought of rereading that post and getting replies was like a stab in the heart so I got rid of it the best I could. This post was obviously controversial and I got PLENTY of tea from my pms so I removed it. I thought that was the most appropriate. Do you have any other suggestions?
Thanks for responding.
Suggestion, removing posts we donāt like where the responses went just adds to the drama.
Try consider it one more life lesson, moving on may help.
@Ridethroughit23, you did the right thing removing the post in this particular scenario. And now know better than to ask for critiques of someone who didnāt ask for a critique
āTeaā implies gossip which reinforces the idea that this trainer is somehow gossip worthy, which is hard to believe. Furthermore, it is a final and completely unnecessary remark in response to a video that many reputable long standing members have already responded to in this thread.
Nearly every thread you make you go back and delete the original post. This is a community. Even your threads arenāt really for you. It is for communal learning. People take time to thoughtfully answer and deleting the post undermines the ability for someone with a similar question to learn. People search and reference past threads daily. Iād recommend taking more time to craft authentic original posts where you genuinely want all feedback, even if it differs from your own.
I took that comment to mean that the OP got plenty of criticism via PMs for making such a post in the first place. But I could certainly be wrong about that.
I absolutely concur with those who said that it is very bad form to invite a critique of someone else or someone elseās horse. How would you feel if somebody did the same thing to you or your horse?
No, it was not the thing to do, especially since other people had already quoted your post. The best way to end the drama and stop the discussion would have been to come back and:
1.) edit your original post, removing any links or personal information that would allow people to track down the trainer and horse you mentioned;
2.) make a new post in which you say something like, āHey, guys, Iām sorry. Youāre right. I shouldnāt have posted a link to that video and Iāve removed it. And thanks for all the informative responses. I appreciate it.ā
That kind of response leaves everyone satisfied and the discussion will die.
And, like @GraceLikeRain said, adding that comment just makes it worse because it implies that there is some kind of inflammatory gossip about that trainer and that you were right to have posted it here and you only took it down because all these people who are ignorant of the āteaā complained.
I think this is pretty standard in many riding schools. I rode at quite a few barns growing up that pretty much only had school horses, or clients with well-trained experienced show horses. Some of the school horses were OTTBs, but they were all in their teens and certainly not green.
My definition of āgreenā was a clientās horse that had only been doing the 3ft for a few years, and was 8 or 9 instead of 14 or 15. It wasnāt until I was college I was around truly green horses, including OTTBs.
Oh the things I learn on horse forums. I never knew the word tea meant gossip. Wow.
I have found that most people who brag about all the PMs they got that make them more right, likely do not have a whole bunch of PMs at all, with or without tea.
Why is this so hard to believe? I am in no way defending OPās decision to make this post; it wasnāt the wisest or kindest choice, but I donāt believe it was done in malice. Some of us are local and may know (of) the trainer in question and reached out to the OP to provide additional context beyond what a 2-minute, cherry-picked sales ad can convey. Not necessarily āteaā or gossip, but ⦠you know ⦠additional information to help the OP make a better-informed decision about whether or not she wants to pursue the transaction. In fact, at least one person tagged OP in this post to ensure that she checked her PMs.
The pile-on is weird. OP deleted the post when she was called out for violating board norms, thanked everyone for their responses, and moved on. I kinda donāt blame her for getting a little defensive, especially if she felt validated at all by any private communications she received.
I dunno. Horses are hard enough. Seeking more info isnāt a bad thing, though I am in agreement that in this case it should/could have been done more discreetly and less publicly. But I donāt see a whole lot of daylight between this thread and the Benchmark thread going on over in the Eventing forum.
If it was not done with malice it would not have included the snarky comment about the tea.
And the OP could have removed the part of their original post that included the information about the horse/rider and the video and kept the thread going other than that.
And to answer your question, yes. It is generally hard to believe. Again, most people who brag about the endless PMs sending them crap about others are not being honest.
You are saying the OP is not most. Thank you for clarifying that.
The tea comment was still out of line (well, except I admit again, I learned something because I had not heard that word used that way before).
I do think seeking more information is great. I think asking questions is great.
I only piled on because I was irritated by the OP beheading the post and rendering a string of thoughtful knowledgeable replies potentially useless. Fortunately the post was quoted.
The gracious way to handle this would be to remove the video link, and to perhaps add to the original post that this is becoming an interesting discussion about how to evaluate green OTTB. Also maybe a discussion about tail wringing and keeping a green horse in balance.
If itās true that many people these days may not have exposure to seeing green OTTB schooling at home or in local unrated shows, or even seeing green WB or QH (who present different but equal challenges, a QH can have a powerful buck if they feel unbalanced!), then thereās a really interesting learning opportunity about what green horses look like and how to ride them.
Especially if you are horse shopping and looking at greener horses. You need to have a sense of whatās baby steps and whatās a problem.
I live at the low end of nice horses, where folks have an eye for a horse but looking for bargains. Iāve watched people (ammies and low level pros) schooling the full range of āproject horses.ā OTTB and OTSB ( who can be chaotic). Nice young QH that came through the cull/rescue circuit. Really nice homebred WBs that sat in a field until their teens, when the breeders life changed and she rehomed them. Actual wildies from the native band lands. Fallen through the cracks horses that donāt have the education youād expect of their age and need restarting at ten. Failed show-bred Arab that scared his owners and ended up in an upcountry back yard. Ponies with a bucking habit. Etc
When I reflect on what Iāve watched Iād say there was more eventual success than youād expect in terms of making up a rideable w t c horse and doing a bit of dressage or jumping. But the progress here was never fast, linear, or easy. The owners all had to learn a lot about ground work and behavior and problem solving. Some of them gave up and rehomed their horses. Some of these horses succeeded in more experienced homes.
So Iāve watched a lot, quite apart from my own learning curve. Iād say that if you want fast linear progress towards a goal, buy a horse thatās already doing the job.
In that video I saw a pro rider holding a green horse together very nicely, but in a way that I donāt think I could do safely, and I doubt OP could either from their self description. Maybe after a year of basic training either of us could have a good ride on that horse!
A discussion of what you see watching a green horse could include watching how they balance and how they react to losing balance. Some horses with heart will keep going, like this one, and all you get is tail wringing. Some horses feel that the best way to regain balance is to explosively buck after a jump and some will stop or run out.
OTTB are already used to competing and doing a job and athletic so I think sending one around a low course early on is a much more reasonable ask than for a horse that was genuinely just started under saddle. I would say though that if you bought this horse youād want to step down and start doing poles and stride length and related distances to build some strength and balance for the job.
Iād also say that if an adult rider has been this sheltered from watching green horses, they might want to figure out ways to go see this IRL and learn a bit. Itās wonderful to ride school masters and it may be the best choice to buy one, but if youāve never seen green horses thereās a huge part of your education missing. Not saying you have to buy one or even ride one.
We have a couple of track trainers wintering at our recreational barn plus one of my long term coaches restarted a lot of OTTB. Iām in awe watching how they can keep explosive horses between hand and leg and ride out the inevitable bobbles. Itās really interesting IRL to watch them cope though my preference is to watch from the bench not try to share the arena!
I watched the video too before the link was taken down. And while I agree, I think OP was overreacting re: pain signals, and there was nothing beyond the pale for a green horse doing a schooling round over jumps, I will admit it gave me pause as a sales video. Especially because it didnāt exactly match the description in the sales ad (which IIRC was something like āhorse is good-minded and quiet, never have to lunge at the show grounds, just walked straight onto the course shown into the videoā). Ok, maybe they did just walk straight onto the course in the video. But maybe they didnāt and said they did. Why not lunge at the show ground, show the horse the jumps, pay to do the schooling round, ie, anything and everything to set the horse up for success and get the best possible sale reel? I guess you could say itās because the seller is so honest, they want to show the horse warts and all. But I donāt know, it just gives me pause. I guess what Iām saying is, if I saw a dead quiet and happy round for a green sales horse, I would go into it expecting the reality to be a lot more like the horse in OPās sales ad. But when I see a sales ad like OPās, I think, oh boy, thatās just the tip of the iceberg on that one. Maybe Iām not giving enough credit to the ammies of the world but I just would not say that is an ammie-in-a-program ready horse.
I completely agree that this horse is not ready to go compete with an ammie rider without a good year of training about distances and regulating gait and strengthening the canter so they donāt rush.
If I was a much braver ammie or a low level pro on a budget I might think itās a bargain to pay say $8000 for a sane, sound, pretty young mare knowing that Iām going to have to start her over. But she has shown she can keep it together under stress in a job she isnāt fully prepared for.
The seller had two videos up, horse was more unbalanced in one and better in the other if I recall rightly.
Often people take green horses to schooling shows precisely to get some nice video over a proper course with the horse cleaned up. Amd these are honest videos with no edits.
Other people might market with videos from home arena where the transitions are cut out and you only see one jump at a time. A course is a challenge to.stay balanced and focused. It would be easy to make a tightly edited set of clips that made the horse appear further along than she is, but they didnāt do that.
I think this is an honest video that lets anyone who knows what they are seeing to make an assessment of the horses training level (green) and personality (quite tolerant but needs a tactful pro ride to make it around).
I always discount whatās said and look at the video or preferably the actual horse IRL.
The horse was well behaved given that she was anxious and unbalanced. She wasnāt doing anything that longeing at the show would have fixed. She wasnāt over energized or bucking. She was getting speedy because she didnāt quite have the strength to maintain a cadenced canter